Amrita
Name: Amrita Bhavan <-- Personal Information --> Gender: Female Age: 55 Height (human form): 5'3'' Weight (human form): 57 kg Physical Description: Despite being a mere human, even in this baseline form Amrita retains a fair bit of intruigue in her appearance. She stands short - around 5'3'' and has a reasonably sliender figure without appearing to be anorexic. Her skin is a tanned brown, while deep, very dark brown eyes stare out at the world with an inquisitive curiosity. Her face, though narrow and long still retains a bit of reasonable proportion while her hair flows down towards her shoulders, relatively well kept and is a light grey going on to white. She has an air about her - an unusual one of reservedness and conservatism, one that is clearly reflected in her clothing - a simple set of robes that one wouldn't mistake on a western monk which conceals most of her body - only giving the barest hints of her gender. Its tied by a crimson belt around her waist - one that holds her bags and only possessions on it. However, unusually it appears to have two large, unusually placed slits on the sides running from under her arms to her legs. Though these are carefully concealed by cleverly camouflaged clasps, they may be noticable to someone with a keen eye. Height (Werebat form): 5' Weight (Werebat form): 27 kg Physical Description: The purpose of the slits in her clothing becomes abundantly clear when Amrita takes on her were form. Its a mid-point between her human and bat form and has elements of both. She stands at 5' at this height, but makes up for it in width, spanning nearly 14' from wingtip to wingtip. In this form she retains the head of a vampire bat, complete with its black eyes, muzzle and giant ears. Her skin has darkened, having sprouted the fur pattern of a bat that runs all over the rather humanoid body. Though the notable exception are her arms - which have elongated significantly and thinned, though she still retains hands at the end. These hands however, have elongated fingers that end in sharp claws capable of rendering skin. A giant webbed wing runs all along the underarms, connecting down to her legs and torso and are pretty much identical to a bat's. Through this all, Amrita's modesty remains quite intact thanks to those robes - which now reveal their more usable and flexible nature, adapting to her current form. Height (Bat form): 1' weight (bat form): 1 kg Physical Description: A rather large-ish example of a vampire bat, but a fairly ordinary one otherwise. Species/Race: Were-Vampire bat <-- Powers/Abilities --> Special Powers/Abilities --- Power Name: Flight Description: She is capable of flight in her were-bat and bat forms. Limitations: Werebat form - 20-30 minutes of continous flight before she needs to rest briefly. Bat form - full night before requiring to feed. Her body is light and fragile to allow for that flight. Power Name: Shapeshifting Description: She can shift accross three forms at will, except during the full moon, where she is trapped to either the midway form or as a bat. One of the two. Limitations: Wounds do not heal accross forms. She can only shift three times a day at most. She cannot hold her human form for more than 48 hours without having to shift back. Each shift increases her hunger, only part of which can be quenched with blood. Shifting before eating enoguh will make her unconcious and send her into starvation mode, which will prioritize feeding over higher activity. Additionally, the more she shifts 'down' towards the animal form, the more feral her actions become and harder it is for her to focus or think. Its strongest when in bat form, where she has the chance to slip into a feral state for months if her resolve is not strong enough. Power Name: Enhanced Hearing/echolocation: Description: Her hearing is actually very, very sharp - easily at par with that of a bats, capable of hearing far beyond human range. It allows for advanced echolocation to be used as well, letting her navigate through audio alone even while human - though in the human form its range is very diminished. Limitations:Its most viable in her bat form, where echolocation is fully functional. It decreases in usefulness in her werebat form, where range is reduced, while the human form has only a few advantages compared to normal humans (10-20% more frequency range basically). She's highly vulnerable to sonic attacks, while deliberately avoids areas with machinery and loud crowds as the number of sounds uneases her. As a consequence, her eyesight is quite poor as well, only able to see 10 meters or so clearly beyond which things are fuzzy. Power Name: Enhanced Strength: Description: Although she resembles a tall, thin woman, she easily has a great deal of strength to use, especially when distressed or trying to flee (around twice that of an average human in very short bursts). However, this is basic strength and doesnt reflect her ability to use it effectively. Limitations: Strength depends on how well fed she is, both on food and blood. Starving for blood reduces the strength she can apply to effectively nothing. Can only be used in short bursts when you'd typically have an adrenaline shot in humans. Power Name: Blood Description: Not an ability, but a requirement for the character. Although Amrita makes up most of her diet on regular foods and fruits, the fact that she is a were-vampire bat means that on occasion she needs to feed on blood. It doesnt matter if its that of a human's or cattle - it just needs to be mammalian in origin, otherwise she gets progressively weaker till death. Limitations: She cannot just get blood from anywhere. It must be from a living, breathing mammalian animal. She can temporarily inherit a very diluted version of natural compulsions, traits and behaviors of the creatures she feeds on. So feeding on a drunk will make her more prone to alcohol abuse, etc. This does *not* include their magical abilities or spells, it is limited only to behaviors. If feeding on a heavily magical being she may be temporarily 'tainted' with that magic (i.e. if she fed off say someone channeling heavy undead magic, she may temporarily 'feel' undead to those with magic senses). The magic taint only extends to ID and/or negative effects. This lasts for a maximum of one hour, with time dependent on how much she fed off of them. The exact extent of what she acquires is determined by the other player and/or GM as applicable. Power Name: Regeneration Description: The curse gives Amrita a decent amount of regeneration. It doesnt make her immortal by any means - anything that would kill a regular person will still destroy her. Nor does it mean she can regrow limbs. But minor and major non-fatal wounds will tend to heal over a period of a few weeks to a month. It has given her an excellent bit of health though and a fair bit of resistance to disease and aging. Limitations: Only limited to disease, aging and minor wounds. Major wounds will heal faster, but only 40-50% at most. No limb replacement. Runs on her metabolism. Taking too much damage will require a great deal of energy to heal, which means she'll get hungrier. Additionally, she cannot regenerate from being cut by silver or does so slower than a human. Any wound that would maim a human with silver will likely kill her. Skills/Abilities --- Agriculture: Her hands, though soft, bear the scars of many years of work in the farm, as does the tan of her skin. While she hasnt actually tilled a farm or grown crops in decades, its something close enough to her heart that she'd be able to do it in a heartbeat. Stealth and thievery: Being a were requires a fair bit of stealth to blend into normal society. It becomes even more of a challenge on nights of the full moon - to that extent, Amrita has learned the habit of how to move silently and efficiently. She takes what she needs to survive when she cant find a way to earn it without revealing her nature, having learnt how to use lockpicks on doors and windows as necessary. Basic unarmed combat: Amrita's skills rely primarily on avoiding trouble rather than running into it - something she's been fairly good at for decades. That said, she knows how to basically defend herself in the case she's cornered. But given the fragile build of her forms, she's not that much more adept at it than a normal woman. Baking / Cooking / General house wifery: When she has the chance in the villages she visits, Amrita takes every chance to bake or cook for people. Its something that she's missed dearly from her days as a mortal - and its something that she takes great pride in, even if its something really minor. Very minor Healer: She's not a healer in any stretch of the imagination, but she is aware of how to use natural remedies and cures to fix many common ailments, as well as knowing her way around cleaning wounds and helping patch people up rudimentarily. <-- Inventory --> Gold: A bit of gold jewellery and coins that she on her person - though they are concealed by those robes and in deep pockets to ensure they arent pickpocketed. Around 90 coins worth when all summed together. Dagger: A simple dagger, well built and balanced. Nothing fancy - but usable as a personal defense weapon. Trinkets: Some cultery, a few smooth stones, clothes, tinder and other minor items needed to survive. Herbs: a collection of herbs, spices and other materials she uses in more 'natural' cures and reagents. <-- Additional Information --> Personal Information, History, Background: Once upon a time, things were simple for Amrita. She lived as a simple wife, a lowly peasent with her own farm in a small city far to the south. A cold, desolate land with boiling hot summers it was a hard living. The little city-state, now long since gone, was where she had built a name for herself. She had her own little business - a bakery, mill and farm that she ran with her husband and children. Things began to fall apart as she reached middle age though - her children having drifted away and then drafted to work in the army. One of the three died soon after - while the other two were sent off to fight further north for many years. Her husband died of influenza soon afterwards, crippling the business temporarily. Still, she perservered, the widow running things on her own to support herself as much as possible. It was during this time though - when she was alone and most vulnerable - that she made friends with an unusual gipsy vagrant. A man named Tristan that stole her heart and endeared her to his company. Alone and lonely, she went on many a tryst with him, especially as he sought to escape from his wife, Hilda, to whom he was slowly becoming more and more distant. He dared not cross her though, because Hilda was a witch and a fairly powerful one at that. Thus the pair kept their relationship a secret, until one winter morning when Hilda walked in on them during one of their wild escapades. To say she was furious was an understatement. Anger led to words, which escalated to a heated argument which then evolved into magic. At the height of the argument, Hilda unleashed a curse against Amrita, one that transformed her into a bat. The transformation was also instantaneous - and indeed, right in front of entire little community. Shocked, frightened and traumatized, she fled the city, disappearing into the wilds of the Southern Frontier. Over the next few weeks she brooded in the woods - and would come to discover another aspect of the curse: her ability to shift. She was able to shift to a werebat form with concentration, reclaiming some manner of humanoid form. For the next decade she would spend her time in the forests, surviving as best as she could off of wild animals and fruits - avoiding every bit of human contact given she had yet to figure out how to turn back to human. What few periods of contact she had usually ended up with her on the run while being hunted, furthering the drain on her mental faculty was tiring. The curse compelled her as much as possible into the animalistic side of her mind and indeed, for many months on occasion she would find herself lost, missing memories as her mind submerged into that of the feral bat. When she kept her faculty intact, occasionally she would go into caravans and steal something or the other to survive, but her only human contact would come twenty years later when she met a witch doctor being attacked by several bandits. Compelled to help, the werebat managed to drive them off with the witch's help. Her name was Shana and had she was on a trade mission for her tribe from the deep south. In reward she offered to examine Amrita's curse a bit. It is here that she received the second shock of her life: she was not in fact all that cursed. It had only shifted her into the bat form and had worn off not weeks after it was inflicted - which in turn coincided with when she learnt how to shift. Something in Amrita's blood - and bloodlines - had taken to it, jump started by the application of powerful magics. A bit of investigation brought bore the truth of the matter; one of Amrita's ancestors had been afflicted by a mysterious disease that had turned them into shifters much like Amrita was now. The disease was magical in nature, inflicted by a demon that had pillaged these same lands so long ago. Though they eventually went extinct, they had clearly cross-bred enough to let the disease linger in the bloodlines. All it took was one with a direct lineage and a powerful dose of magic to cause it to rear it's ugly head. Combined with the nature of the curse - the bat form - she was more or less left in her current state and totem animal. Distraught with no hope of rejoining society, Amrita pleaded for any alternative or help. The witch doctor could help, fortunately. She took Amrita under her wing, teaching her how to meditate and master the process. Eventually after several months of practice, concentration and a bit of magic to help, Amrita was able to take on a human form again much like those original shifters - albeit it temporarily. She was now able to shift to her three forms at will, giving some control back to the woman. They had become lifelong friends and even lovers. Amrita had picked up a few of Shana's tips and secrets, taking up elements of the witch doctor trade in the reagent making. As the months ended the pair had to have a tearful separation. Shana had to go east, to the far kingdoms, while Amrita sought to rescue Tristan from the old hag. Should she fail, Amrita promised to try and find Shana again. It was a pact they agreed to before they left.. She took off North in search of her old city. Returning to civilization though she found that it had changed significantly. The empires from the far north had taken over, conquering many of the places she knew. The church of the apostles had lead the crusade, expunging those of any other religion, along with heretics, witches and abominations. Amrita managed to remain hidden for a year while searching for Tristan. A blunder in a tavern feeding revealed her nature though, sparking off a full on hunt by the Church's inquisition. She has been on the run since then, the incident having forced her to seek refuge in a few abandoned ruins. She was flying through the air when she ended up being somewhere else! Player information: Singh Other notes: